Ex-FBI chief Robert Mueller named special prosecutor for Trump-Russia probe

Last updated 10:22, May 18 2017

The Justice Department has appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee a federal investigation into potential co-ordination between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

The appointment on Thursday (NZT) came amid a growing Democratic outcry for someone outside the Justice Department to handle the politically charged investigation.

It followed the revelation Tuesday that fired FBI director James Comey had written in a memo that Trump, in a February meeting in the Oval Office, had asked him to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The White House has denied that account.

REUTERS

US President Donald Trump says he's been treated more unfairly than any politician in history.

Mueller was appointed FBI director in 2001 and led the FBI through the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. He retired in 2013.